Our look at the closing lines of the week’s biggest new-music reviews continues with a roundup of reactions to A Man’s Thoughts, the sixth album from R & B smoothie Ginuwine:


• ”Further in, things get more interesting, as Ginuwine thinks up new ways to channel his sexual feelings. ‘Lying to Each Other’ is middle-age honest: since our relationship has become boring (’I’d rather watch cable/than see you with a negligee on’), he proposes to his mate: let’s pretend we’re other people. And ‘Orchestra,’ written with the producer Oak, is a synesthesia slow jam. Ginuwine plays the conductor, and he’s hearing sex; he’s making love through sound. There’s an impressive trombone metaphor in there.” [Ben Ratliff, New York Times]


• ”But with only a few exceptions–such as ‘Bridge to Love,’ a hard-swinging duet with Brandy, and ‘Lying to Each Other,’ in which Ginuwine admits to his lady, ‘I’d rather watch cable than see you with a negligee on’–the material here doesn’t live up to his performances, making the music easier to admire than to enjoy. When Timbaland and Elliott finally show up for one cut, the space-age disco jam ‘Get Involved,’ the uptick in energy is striking.” [Mikael Wood, Los Angeles Times]


• “On the lighter side, Ginuwine reconnects with Timbaland on ‘Get Involved,’ but it’s a missed opportunity, an overstuffed wreck of a club track where the producer and Missy Elliott all but completely wipe him out of the picture. ” [Andy Kellman, All Music Guide]


• ”A handful of 
uptempo highlights aside, the rest of the disc turns out to be an 
unduly generous helping of syrupy bedroom pleas that’ll have you wishing Ginuwine had decided to keep some of those Thoughts to himself.” [Simon Vozick-Levinson, EW]